Hatter and Reason
by BloodInkLilacQuill
Summary: Why didn't hatter follow Alice? What was their relationship really about and what did Hatter do when Alice left? For that matter what really goes on in Hatter's head? Read and find out! Please review as well. Set just after Alice leaves Underland for the final time, set in Hatter's POV One-shot


**Please forgive any mis-spelt names.**

**A one-shot about hatter just after Alice disappears to go back to her own world. Just an idea floating about my head... So many questions kept coming up, like what was their relationship, Alice and the Hatter? Why did the butterfly leave Underland to visit her and why didn't anybody else?  
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**I would love for some reviews, is it too dark? Make no sense? Do you hate or love it? Thank you for reading, your reviews are appreciated as well!  
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><p>Hatter watched as she disappeared into smoke, right before his eyes.<p>

Her, the girl he had stopped time for, the girl that had always been either too big or too small each time they had met and now that she had been just right, she was gone.

Her armor stood in her place for a moment before crashing to the ground. And just as the heap lay still there was a flash of gold, he reached out and caught it swiftly, her necklace, he had noticed her wearing it before but had assumed it was lost with changing sizes, he held it in his outstretched hand for a moment, blinking twice in thought and shock before bringing it close to him to better examine the thing. It was beautiful, with a small bird drawn in gold on smoky quartz bead.

A little bird, perhaps a sparrow, how fitting. The blue sparrow was gone and this time, he knew she would not be coming back. He could not stop time again, time didn't like him that much, he could not follow her the growing and shrinking foods only worked on those from outside of Underland and so, he would not fit through the door.

His mind knew it was impossible then, he would never see her again and yet, he did not know exactly why he had liked seeing her so much, it was not about marriage or rude thoughts that he had liked her, or her being alike to a daughter.

"Hatter?" Asked the mouse, interrupting his thoughts, he turned to her, she always understood but just then, looking at him, he could tell that she did not. He walked away, the celebration went on around him, he barely noticed it, stuck in such a thought he was rendered deaf to his surroundings.

His feet lead him back to the castle, or perhaps it was something more, he went on a wondrous walk around until he came to the blue caterpillars cocoon, there he sat down and waited. He wasn't sure for what, he didn't even know why and during the days that past he could not remember what he had been thinking or feeling, or even doing as he sat on the bench and waited.

Finally there was movement but not by him, the cocoon began the shift and shake it began at dawn, or perhaps it was dusk, and it ended at the next lighting in the sky. When it did end, it was only because it split open like a sac of fish and out came the new caterpillar now a butterfly, his wings still wet and unready. Hatter watched as the two wings slowly spread out, looking dark and mysterious in the colored light and drying to look both strong and fragile as is the butterfly way.

Hatter smiled as the butterfly took its first flight, already knowing what Hatter needed without so much as a word between them, he went out to check on Alice, and help her along her way, both knew she would be needing his help and both knowing she likely would be reluctant to accept it.

Absolem flew away, out of sight. It was only then that Hatter realized the necklace was still in his hand, he put it in his pocket and went inside for something to eat. It was then that Hatter got a thought, that it wasn't protection he had wanted for her, what protection could a butterfly give her? It was company he wanted for her, he understood what it was like being alone and what he truly had wanted was to ensure she wouldn't be alone. He half thought to find a way to tell Absolem this but then, Absolem had already known this, Hatter was sure, and had left for the very reason Hatter had just found out he wanted.

Now he understood what he had liked about her, they were kindred spirits, both alone both thought to be strange and outsiders in a world that thought themselves to be already made and set. It was sad they were in different worlds but perhaps it was also best, no world would be able to take on two of their kind and no world should have to.

He understood that he was strange even for Underland, he knew he would be alone with his close friends hopefully for a few more years yet and he accepted this with the knowledge that he could never change it if he tried. Alice would always be the same, alone in her world, she would have friends if she was very lucky and wise but in the end, she would be alone. He kept trying in his mind, to accept this thought, but it never fully accepted, like the wrong puzzle-piece in the wrong place or an apple painted orange to be an orange. Like the women herself, the idea would never belong in his mind, the idea that it was alright for her to be alone in such a foreign world.

He sat beside the queen at the table and for the first time in so many long years, ate a filling dinner without any regrets or remorseful thoughts nagging at the corners of his consciousness. He decided to put his thoughts and feelings of Alice in a chest with a key, to be mulled over in the privacy of his darkest and most peaceful moments. He had, at least, the answers that he had been, for so long, seeking and that would have to be enough for now.

At least for now, later... well later would have to be later he had a lot of lonely years left to mull it all over with but for now he would enjoy the company that was shared with him.

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the story and it helped answer some questions that plagued you as they did me, I have never read the books or read more than a light biography on the characters, aside from watching the movie, so a lot of it is made up, thanks for reading any questions you may or may not have can be asked in a review. :D<strong>

**Please Read and Review!  
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